Egypt’s new interim leader held talks yesterday with the army chief and political leaders on how to pull the country out of crisis as the death toll from Islamist protests over the army’s overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi rose to at least 35.

The most populous Arab nation of 84 million people was thrown into more turmoil on Friday when tens of thousands of demonstrators across the country answered a call by Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement to stage a ‘Friday of Rejection’.

At least 35 people died and more than 1,000 were wounded in violence on Friday and yesterday, with the army struggling to maintain order in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities and towns, where pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators fought street battles.

The most deadly clashes were in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, where 14 people died and 200 were wounded.

In central Cairo, rival protesters clashed late into the night with stones, knives, petrol bombs and clubs as armoured personnel carriers rumbled among them.

It took hours to restore calm on the Nile River bridges around the landmark Egyptian Museum. Anti-Morsi activists remained encamped in a suburb of the capital.

Interim head of state Adli Mansour, installed to oversee a military roadmap to elections, spent his first day at the office at Itihadiya Palace, where until a week ago Morsi ran Egypt.

He met armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who announced Morsi’s ouster on Wednesday, and also held talks with former UN nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading liberal, and other politicians who had opposed Morsi.

ElBaradei, 71, is seen as the favourite to lead a new administration focused on reviving a shattered economy and restoring civil peace and security. An aide to ElBaradei said the Prime Minister was expected to be appointed yesterday.

At the same meeting was Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a former Brotherhood member who split from the movement in 2011 to mount his own presidential bid, an official in his party said.

In defiant speeches, Brotherhood leaders continued to denounce Morsi’s overthrow and demand his reinstatement. Their stand may complicate the military-led political transition.

The army has given few details and no timeframe for elections, adding to political uncertainty at a time when many Egyptians fear violence could polarise society still further.

Egypt’s first freely elected President was toppled after mass demonstrations against Muslim Brotherhood rule, the latest twist in a tumultuous two years since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in the Arab uprisings that swept the region in 2011.

While the Brotherhood has insisted it will not resort to violence, some radical Islamists have no such inhibitions. Yesterday, a Coptic Christian priest was shot dead in Egypt’s lawless North Sinai province in what could be the first sectarian attack since Morsi’s overthrow, raising concerns about the potential for further religious violence.

On Friday, five police officers were shot dead in separate incidents in the North Sinai town of El Arish, and while it was not clear whether the attacks were linked to Morsi’s ouster, hardline Islamists there have warned they will fight back.

There were more attacks on army checkpoints in Sinai overnight and gunmen fired on a central security building in El Arish, security sources said.

A new Islamist group announced its formation in the Sinai peninsula adjoining Israel and the Gaza Strip, calling the army’s removal of Morsi a declaration of war on their faith and threatening violence to impose Islamic law.

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